Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: This is the best book that Peter Straub has written in a long time, I couldn't put it down. I had to find out how it ended, and I didn't even cheat. I have been reading true crime books trying to figure out why a serial killer does what he does, but in this book you really get behind the mind of a serial killer and know he is pure evil. I recommend this book highly to anyone who enjoys a good mystery or a good horror story
Rating: 
Summary: An intriguing but not wholly satisfying experience.
Review: This is the first book I've read in a long while that leaves me perplexed as to how I feel about it. It was intriguing enough to keep me interested, it had a fascinatingly fiendish villian, and it was more highbrow than your average pulpy serial killer book. However, I think my ambivalence about the book lies mostly in the fact that I didn't much CARE what happened to these people. Dart was fascinating but too arrogant, Davey was completely annoying, and Nora was just THERE. Oddly enough, I found myself more interested and concerned about the people and events of the past (Mannheim and company). I would not call this a BAD book, but I have to care about the people or I can't root for them to survive.
Rating: 
Summary: Zero Stars
Review: This is truely one of the worst books I've read. It's very slow, banal, and has no point.Very disappointing after reading great books like Ghost Story, The Throat, and Koko by the same author. Even avid Straub fans will be not want to waste their time reading this one.
Rating:
Summary: Zero Stars
Review: This is truely one of the worst books I've read. It's very slow, banal, and has no point. Very disappointing after reading great books like Ghost Story, The Throat, and Koko by the same author. Even avid Straub fans will be not want to waste their time reading this one.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Villain
Review: This one has a straight ahead action oriented plot set against a fairly cerebral mystery that operates on multiple levels, and indeed, across generations. Best of all, it features Dick Dart -- as disdainful, odious, and all the way around great villain this side of Hannibal Lecter. In Nora, he has a worthy adversary. On a plain with Straub's best (Koko, Ghost Story).
Rating:
Summary: Better than you think
Review: This one is better than you think. I don't like Straub's writing style too much, but his characters are very realistic and his plot is REAL horror, not the stupid stuff where someone jumps out and says BOO. The little psychological battle between Straub's characters and Dick Dart - bad name but incredibly freaky villain - is the kind of disturbing horror you don't find in many horror books these days. I don't really understand the negative reviews this has gotten, especially the one guy who said he hadn't even read it but assumed it would be bad, and then went on to advertise for "Dene" Koontz (it's spelled DEAN, buddy) who has never written anything as intelligent as this.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: This was my first book by Peter Straub and I don't think I could have started with a better one. Tremendously Wicked and Savage. Loved it, couldn't put it down!
Rating: 
Summary: Read it just to get it over with.
Review: Unlike "Ghost Story", which I have cherished and gave me horrible goosebumps, this one fizzles as the plot uncovers a long-ago scandal in a publishing company which may inevitably put it in shambles. It took me more than 2 weeks to finish reading this, as I found it hard to empathize with the characters and the "novel within the novel". Somehow the pace did not flow smoothly; though the complex elements of the plot were laid clearly. The devious Dick Dart also appears detached from the general scheme of things. In any case, Straub was able to piece it all out together in the end, a small satisfaction after going through all the trouble.
Rating:
Summary: Not well done and not worth reading
Review: Up to date I have read every book by Peter Straub, and have loved all of them, except this one! Up to about page 250, this book was excellent. I absolutely loved it. It was well written, complex, and mysterious. But upon meeting Dick Dart, I greatly disliked it. I thought that the very descriptive rapes and murders were drawn out and dumb. I thought that Dick Dart was almost childish. The ending was dumb, and the whole kidnapping thing could have been made SO much better. In some ways, I didn't like Nora's character almost IMMIDIATELY after meeting Dick Dart. NOT WORTH READING EVER!!!!! Read his others, they're wonderful.
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